Passengers- The next generation
by fancybutterfly
Summary: *CONTAINS SPOILERS* This story takes place eighteen years (and 9 months) after the movie ends, and it's in the point of view of Aurora and Jim's daughter Inka Preston. Authors note; I do not own Passengers the movie or any of the characters. I will be adding more chapters soon. I would also like to add any feedback (whether negative or positive) would be grately appreciated. :)
1. Chapter 1

My name is Inka Preston. I am eighteen years old riding my way through space on a journey home.

Except, home is a relative term.

For me, home is here. It will always be here, stuck between a steel cage and surrounded by eternal dark skies.

I pressed my hand onto one of the hibernation pods and sighed. It was the same one I came to on nights that I couldn't sleep, which for the last three years had been more of a certainty then it had a probability. Tired, it seemed, had become a part of my personality now.

How I envied them so. They were clueless, ignorant to the sheer emptiness that cradled them. They would get to make it to their home, a place called Homestead two, a new planet where they could colonize and start fresh.

"Inka, what are you doing down here?"

I turned, my mother was scrunching her still wet blonde curls into a towel.

"Come on." She said, staring at the pod and then back at me. "You shouldn't be down here sweetie."

She reached for my hand and with a smile I took it, allowing her to lead me upstairs.

"I have a surprise for you." She squealed, a red delight kissing her cheeks.

Today was my birthday. I know, I should be more excited, right? Like my mother is, and always was when it came to my birthday, but for me it was a day that will always haunt me and ping sparks against my chest.

It was on this day, three years ago, that my dad; Jim Preston died.

When we finally made it upstairs Arthur, the robot who ran the bar here, smiled at me from across the table.

"Always a pleasure Miss Inka."

He smiled and took my hand and laid a small kiss to it, then the same to my mother. He just stared at the space between us and then smiled.

"Oh, Miss Inka, how you look like your mother."

There were a lot of things I shared with my mother. We both had blonde hair, though, despite my mother's outrage two years ago, I had chosen to do lavender tips to it, and we both had brown eyes.

I turned back to her, studying her face, the fine lines that pressed against them with coming age, but still, despite that she was still beautiful.

"Thank you, Arthur." I responded before taking my seat in front of him.

"A jack and coke Arthur." My mother said politely as she took a seat next to me.

"Actually Arthur." I turned when my ears caught the glint of mischief streaming from her voice.

"Make it two." She said holding two fingers up and smiling at me while her head cocked to the side.

Arthur looked at me and then pushed himself closer to my mother.

"But Miss Aurora, I can't. She's under age. I would lose my job."

My mom tsked and shook her head. "Come on Arthur, who's gonna tell? We are literally the only two humans awake on this ship."

"Yes, but mam, it's not the point. It's the principle."

My mother nodded, and rose with her tongue pressed against her cheek.

"Will you give us a moment darling?"

I nodded. I knew better than to say no to my mother when she got that tone. That tone meant trouble, and I was happy, for once not to be on the other side of that.

I turned away, pretending not to listen to their conversation.

"Arthur, this is all she has. All she will ever have."

"Yes, mam, but."

"But nothing." She called back to him. "I don't want Inka to be deprived. She's a good girl, a sweet girl, and she deserves a treat on her birthday. I'm not going to get her drunk Arthur. Just one drink."

"Come on Arthur." She said after a few seconds of silence. "You promised."

"Yes mam." He replied in a steel tone. "Yes, I did."

I pretended to come out of a trans when my mom and Arthur returned.

"Surprise." She said, cradling the drink in her hand and then urging me to mine. "I thought you would like to try this. It's good, and I think you'll like it."

I laughed a little. I couldn't help but notice that my drink was served in a much smaller glass than my mothers and that it was only about half full anyway. Silly paranoid Arthur.

I picked up the cold glass and clinked it with my mothers.

"Happy Birthday Sweetie." She said.

"Thank you, mother." I said before taking the first burning chug of alcohol.

My mother was wrong. So, wrong. I hated it, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"What did you think?" She said placing her still half full glass onto the counter.

"It was fine." I said, pushing the class in front of Arthur, who eagerly took it and looked around to see if anyone had seen what had happened.

"Just fine?" My mom said with a laugh. "Honey, it's ok if you hated it. You can tell me."

I shook my head and allowed one tear to cascade softly down my cheek.

"Honey." She said as she rubbed my back. "What's wrong?"

I turned to my mother, seeing the empty void that filled her brown eyes.

I wanted to tell her. I wanted her to know what I had done, but I was afraid. So, afraid.

"I did it. Or I tried to." I said, forcing my face to turn away from her.

"Did what?" I cringed when I heard the screeching teeth clenching sound that tore from her.

"But it didn't work. I think something went wrong."

"Inka. Just tell me."

I took a deep breath and turned back to her.

"I tried to wake him. Adam Torrens."


	2. Chapter 2

At young age my parents always taught me respect for the pods, and respect for the lives that were inside of them. So, it made sense when I looked up and saw fire spilling across her face over to me.

"How could you do this?" She said, rising and clenching her hands on the sides of her.

Except she didn't understand. She didn't know why.

"Mom, please just listen." I said, wrapping my fist around her arm.

She shoved out of my hold but faced me.

"How dare you? How dare you take that choice away from someone?"

"Mom, it didn't work." I said, opening my arms in a surrendering gesture.

"It doesn't matter." She said, throwing her hands to the top of her head.

"Those pods, if they become damaged or tampered with they can kill. I've seen it Inka."

I closed my eyes, and remembered the story that my mom used to tell me about Chief Gus Mancuso. He was chief deck officer of the Avalon, and had died several years earlier from a malfunction with one of the pods.

She marched past me and made her way to the elevator.

"Mom, please wait."

She crossed her arms around her chest and glared at me, and I found my words carelessly leaving me before I had a chance to stop them.

"Mom, he's a match."

She threw her arm in between the two shutting doors.

"Honey, what are you talking about?"

I took a deep breath, allowing the words that I had cradled inside of me to stretch, giving room for it to flow out of me.

"He's a match, for dad."

She regarded me for a moment with a piercing gaze and then grabbed my arm and pulled me inside.

She didn't speak, until she pushed the button and we zoomed down frantically.

"Honey, dad's dead. You know this."

She wouldn't even look at me, and when I tried to cup her face to turn to me she pushed away.

"But we could save him. We can take Adam's heart and replace dad's."

"Inka, what you have done. What you are doing."

"It's to save dad." I said, cutting off her words. "Maybe we can save him, maybe we can't, but we have to try."

"Your father never wanted that." She said, finally turning her cold stare to me.

"He was ready. He was suffering. He wanted to go."

"Yea, but I wasn't ready to lose him." I said, as I threw my arms up. "I'm still not."

I started to shake, I was trying to clot off the tears that were rising from deep within me, but they just wouldn't stop.

"Do you know every year, every time I turned a year older I didn't think about what kind of future I would have, because I knew that one day I would end up alone."

I was aware of the air between us lightening, her previous anger dulling down to small thuds against my skin.

"Inka, sweetie. There's something I need to tell you." But she was cut off as we arrived down into the chamber with the resting.

I wanted to call out to her, but my lungs just wouldn't allow anything else to escape but small gulps of breath when I ran after her.

I couldn't get over sometimes, at her age, how physically fit my mom was.

We arrived over to Adam Torren's pod. I watched as his chest lifted, but it was straining, caught up in the heavy mouthfuls of air that he drew.

She pulled out her ID badge, the one that Gus had given her before he died. She waved it in front of his pod.

"Computer, on my authority badge #2243 do a health scan on Adam Torrens."

After a few moments, the computer spoke, vibrating through the room.

'To do a health scan patient must be in infirmary pod.'

She swore into the air as she pressed buttons and the screen flashed red. Finally, giving up she slammed her fists against the pexiglass.

"What do we do?" I said, in a small voice.

"You go back upstairs." She said to me as she reached for a slab on the floor. Pulling it up she exposed the controls for the pod.

"What are you doing?"

She turned to me again her teeth bared down. "Inka Rose. I said go upstairs."

"No, mom please. I did this, and I want to help."

Her body sagged and then looked between him and I.

"Fine, but you let me do all the talking."

She focused her eyes back onto the controls then rose when the air within his tube sucked back into the vents.

His chest lifted for a moment then collapsed as the pod opened.

She pulled me down, forcing me to follow her. "You just agree with everything I'm saying." She spoke, barely above a whisper. "Whatever I tell him you back me up."

Her face wrinkled with a sharp determination. "Got it?"

I nodded, and rose when she gave me the nonverbal ok.

'Hello Adam.' The computer spoke to him as his consciousness broke through.

"What? Where am I?"

'You are on board the starship Avalon. It's perfectly normal to be confused.'

"Who are you?" He said turning to us.

My mom pushed herself in front of me and stretched out her hand to him. "Hello Mr. Torrens. My name is Aurora Lane. I am the medical officer aboard this ship."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter#3

"What? Is something wrong?"

My mom stiffened her posture and placed her arms behind her after releasing his hand.

"Mr. Torrens, there was a malfunction with your pod. You woke up 72 years too early. We have to do a health scan to make sure your health isn't compromised."

"Well that explains a lot." He said as he examined himself in the reflection of the mirror extended towards him. "A man needs his beauty sleep."

"And who is she?" He said his green eyes floating over to me.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my mom cut off my words before they hit the air.

"She doesn't speak."

I withdrew my extended hand and placed it behind me. I didn't even know the computer was still speaking until it drew from the heavy silence.

'I am going to escort you to your room Mr. Torrens.'

"Well, if you'll excuse me ladies." He said with a nod.

"You better not take me to the wrong room." He joked to the computer just as he disappeared down the hall.

"Mom, what are you doing?" I said grabbing her once I was sure he was out of ear shot.

"I'm protecting you."

"But Mom, he's not dangerous."

"You don't know that Inka."

She rubbed at her temples and then turned back to me.

"Not everything that is dangerous can physically hurt you."

"What does that even mean?" I said with an unintentional sarcastic undertone.

"It means that I don't want him knowing you were a part of this."

She reached her hands out to touch my shoulders. "Honey, I came down here sometimes too. I saw the way you looked at him."

She turned down the hall and then back to me. "And I saw the way he looked at you, just now. Your father used to look at me that way when we first met."

She wiped at a stray tear that glazed her face and then cleared her throat to steady her voice.

"When I found out your father woke me we fought. For nearly a year. We almost lost a lifetime in that fight."

A smile tugged against her lips when she continued. "And if we wouldn't have ended up together we would have never had you, and you are my greatest joy baby girl."

She wrapped her arms around me and played with my hair. "I love you Inka. Please, trust me on this."

I nodded when she released me. "OK Mom."

"Good." She said as a sigh of relief lifted her voice. "Now we should try to get some sleep. We will do a scan on him tomorrow."

"But mom, how are we going to get him back to sleep?"

She turned her head, but wouldn't pivot her body back to me. "You let me worry about that Inka. Good night baby."

"Good night mom."

She threw a wave before making her way down the hall.

I was going to go to bed, but I wanted to say goodnight to dad first.

His body was in the chapel wing of the ship. We used to go there on Sundays, well actually on whatever day we picked for the week. Since leaving earth both of my parents had lost track of which day was which, but after my father died my mom stopped coming.

So, I came by myself.

I made my way inside and took my usual seat at the front, facing my father's casket pod.

"Hey dad."

I couldn't hear him, but I know he was listening. I could hear him the silence, the memories that flooded through me gave me comfort. It was like he was still talking to me, through a place in my past.

"I'm so sorry." I said, placing my hand against my heavy chest. "I know I promised you a way, a way to save your life."

Heavy sobs ripped from deep in my chest, igniting a full-on rampage of hot tears that barely had time to cool before they escaped my eyes.

"But I can't do it. Dad I'm so afraid."

I moaned into a fresh tissue. I turned when I felt a cool hand dress my shoulder.

"Well for someone that doesn't speak you sure had a lot to say."

I turned, in horror as Adam's porcelain face smiled at me.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter#4

I wiped at my face and cleared my scratchy vocal cords with a cough. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Eh, probably about five seconds longer than you wanted me to be." His eyes trailed to the side, watching me expectantly with a smile.

"So, what's your deal?"

"My deal?"

"Yea." He said with a shrug. "Let's start with your name. Since you already know mine."

I watched his marble hand come towards me. I reached for it, but then pulled back quickly.

"It's better you don't know me. You're going to be going back to sleep soon. So, what's the point?"

He pulled his hand away, clenching at the empty air. "What about you? Aren't you going to sleep too?"

The bitter truth tore through every bit of my body, escaping out of my throat.

"Like I said, you're going back to sleep. You don't need to know me."

"Well, I'd like to."

He was kind, and witty, and he seemed sweet, charming even, but I didn't want to hurt him. We weren't meant to know each other, not in this lifetime.

"Why, why do you want to know me?"

He shrugged his shoulders and sank his back against the pew. "I guess I just want to talk to you. It seems like Dr. Lane does a lot of it for you."

I watched as he ran his fingers through his blonde hair. "Though I really would like to take you out to dinner, or whatever constitutes a date on this ship."

"Well Mr. Torrens I'm afraid that's not possible."

I rose on sturdy legs and walked out without bothering to turn back.

The next day I woke up and made my way out to the cafeteria. My mom was there, already halfway done with her breakfast.

"Good morning sweetie." She said with a warm smile.

"Hey mom." As soon as I sat in front of her she wiped at her mouth and walked over to the ordering booth.

Since I was not an original passenger my parents had to order all my meals for me. It liked it when my mom got my food though. She was gold status, meaning she had access to a lot of the things my dad hadn't. Like pumpkin flavored coffee. Yum.

"Here you go." She placed the tray in front of me and smiled.

"Thanks."

Two minutes later Adam Torrens walked in.

"So, this is where they stashed the food?" He said with a laugh.

I smiled beneath a mouthful of hot eggs and watched as he placed his order, with the help of my mom.

It surprised me to see when he sat down that he was a gold member too, perhaps his family was wealthy or something, he seemed far too young to have a kind of job that would finance it.

"Well here's to the first day of my journey in space." He said, holding up a glass of orange juice and clinking it with ours.

"Adam, if you don't mind me asking how are you gold status?"

I turned away, attempting to dodge the daggers that shot from my mom's eyes.

"Well." He said after taking a sip of his juice. "It was part of the make a wish foundation."

I turned back to my mom and squinted and then back to Adam.

"Oh, you're not familiar?" He said, looking at the space between us.

"It's a program for sick kids. Like me."

I sure as heck wasn't going to ask what he was sick with, but he was all too happy to answer, using the beckoning silence to do so.

"Cancer." He said with a jolt. "I have cancer."

We basked in the silence until my mom cleared her throat. "I'm sorry to hear that Adam."

"It's ok." He said with a smile. "Today is a good day."

He then turned to me and winked. "A very good day."

"That's actually how I was able to get a ride on here." He continued.

"My parents too."

"Your family is on this ship too?"

He nodded and dabbed at his mouth. "Yea, after I found out I was sick my family and I wanted to start over. Somewhere new, but my mom, being the extremist she is thought that another planet would be better than a new address."

I felt sorry for him. I knew that he had put up a good front with humor and charm, but I could see it in the backlash of his face, the wrinkles from fighting the sadness that etched there.

I felt like I was drowning in my own guilt. I woke up a kid with cancer to take his heart.

I had to get out of there.

I ran out without another word and made my way to the elevator.

I needed some air.

"Inka." I heard my mother call to me.

I ignored her, listening to the echo of beats that pumped from my chest.

"Inka Preston, you get back here now."

Her tone pressed against my brain, pleading with my eyes to turn back to her, but I wouldn't.

I couldn't.

I pressed the bottom several times until the door finally closed right on my mother's face.

I sank down onto the ground and drug my fingers through my hair and squeezed against my scalp.

I'm a monster.

I rose once I found the strength to after crying for what felt like hours.

I made it to the third floor where the infirmary was. Maybe there was something there I could take, maybe a pill or something for anxiety.

I walked up and reached at the hand print that opened the door.

'Access Denied. Medical personnel needed.'

"Son of a bitch." I yelled, slamming my fists against the door.

That's when I heard a soft voice next to me.

"Inka, honey, what are you doing?"

My mother reached out and grabbed me, pulling me into her space.

That's when everything spilled over. Every emotion I had.

I didn't think I could cry so much.

"Mom, what have I done?"

I continued to sob into her. She reached around me and ran her fingers through my hair.

"Baby, you made a mistake. It's ok. We will work this out."

"But how?" I said with a muffled tone.

I stared, watching the fight in her eyes, but looking at me the fight stopped, replaced by soft surrender.

"Honey, there's something I need to show you."

She reached into the folds of her jacket and pulled out her ID card.

She ushered her hand between me and the pod. I turned to the pod, but quickly shifted my eyes to her waiting for her to speak.

"We were going to wait to tell you until you were 21."

She paused and pushed at the controls until she found what she wanted.

I watched the screen intently, my eyes widening in shock.

"Your father found a way to put someone back to sleep. He offered it to me all those years ago, but I turned it down."

She traced her fingers delicately over the pexi glass.

"On your twenty first birthday we were going to give you the choice, but the truth is I never wanted to show you this, because I knew what you would choose."

She took a deep breath and her shoulders sagged as if a heavy weight lifted from her.

"But after Adam was awoken I realized I had to show you this now. I had to show you there was another way."

She turned to me with a sad smile.

"But I'm afraid that the choice is no longer up to you. We have to use it on Adam."


End file.
